eCommerce systems - worth the headache?

Hey once again, guys.

I am making a website for a client, she wants to sell hand-crafted products. I firmly believe in getting a website to look exactly how I envision it.

I am currently trying to strip down an OpenCart theme so she can have a CMS and an established administration system.

The problem is, I am removing so many features that I feel like I should just use simpleCart, which is a lightweight Javascript shopping cart.

I don't feel like butchering miles of code, and building a new site from the ground up gives me more control.

it depends on how much you are removing,
the more fuller code could have many small extras that could be helpful in security or usability, or its code organizing that would allow you to add to it later,

a smaller code would be easier to manage

just see how much exactly are you removing from the 1st code